Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Buys 63,299 Shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) by 102.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 124,838 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after purchasing an additional 63,299 shares during the quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in BJ’s Restaurants were worth $4,495,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BJRI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 37.2% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 30,829 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 8,363 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 19.2% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 21,113 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $598,000 after purchasing an additional 3,404 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of BJ’s Restaurants by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 7,502 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 57.0% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 14,264 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $404,000 after acquiring an additional 5,181 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in BJ’s Restaurants by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 60,302 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,707,000 after acquiring an additional 1,941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at BJ’s Restaurants

In other news, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction of $295,022.25. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $467,491.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Fund 1 Investments, Llc sold 242,000 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total value of $8,598,260.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,326,476 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,659,692.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Alex Puchner sold 7,713 shares of BJ’s Restaurants stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.25, for a total transaction of $295,022.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 12,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $467,491.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on BJRI shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, February 16th. TheStreet raised shares of BJ’s Restaurants from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of BJ’s Restaurants in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of BJ’s Restaurants from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.30.

BJ’s Restaurants Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of BJRI stock opened at $32.10 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $34.96 and a 200-day moving average of $31.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.64 and a 12-month high of $38.76. The firm has a market cap of $751.14 million, a P/E ratio of 38.67, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 2.12.

BJ’s Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The restaurant operator reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.07. BJ’s Restaurants had a net margin of 1.47% and a return on equity of 5.45%. The company had revenue of $323.64 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $331.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.17 EPS. BJ’s Restaurants’s quarterly revenue was down 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current year.

About BJ’s Restaurants

BJ's Restaurants, Inc owns and operates casual dining restaurants in the United States. Its restaurants offer pizzas, craft and other beers, appetizers, entrées, pastas, sandwiches, specialty salads, and desserts. The company was formerly known as Chicago Pizza & Brewery, Inc and changed its name to BJ's Restaurants, Inc in August 2004.